AL.com is counting down to the 2017 SEC football season on Sept. 2 by presenting the No. 1 player to wear each number 1 through 99 in the conference's history. There are 82 days until the first Saturday of the SEC football season, and the No. 1 82 is Alabama tight end/split end Ozzie Newsome.

In 1976 and 1977, Alabama's Ozzie Newsome was the All-SEC first-team tight end. In 1977, the former Colbert County High School three-sport star also earned consensus All-American honors - but not at tight end.

Newsome was a consensus All-American receiver that season (when Notre Dame's Ken MacAfee was the consensus All-American tight end). On the American Football Coaches Association's All-American selections in 1977, Newsome was the first-team split end.

Regardless of the terminology or position for Newsome, the results were good for Alabama, which posted a 26-2 SEC record, won three conference championships and went 42-6 overall in his four seasons with the Crimson Tide.

Newsome's Alabama career earned him a spot in the College Football Hall of Fame. After he left the Tide, Newsome's 13-season career - as a tight end - with the NFL's Cleveland Browns landed him in the Pro Football Hall of Fame, too.

Runner-up at No. 82: LSU wide receiver Wendell Davis

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